The Mark of Athena
by the invisible author
Summary: Everyone thinks that the trouble will begin after the Argo II sets down in Camp Jupiter. What if it begins before? What if Gaea found a way into the Argo II? This is my version of The Mark of Athena
1. Chapter 1

AN: Ok this is my first fanfiction. Don't kill me if it's bad. You guys know that I don't own Percy Jackson or Heroes of Olympus so all rights to Rick Riordan.

Annabeth I

I couldn't believe it. 8 month I was waiting for this. 8 months I was waiting to see him. Now I'm going to see him in five minutes and I don't know if I'm ready. I lay on my bed in my room on the Argo II. Leo really had done a great job on it. My room was made out of a deep mahogany, like the whole ship. I had book-filled shelves lining two of the walls. My desk held my laptop, a gift from Daedalus, and numerous folders holding battle plans and maps. On the wall by my bed, on one of the only book free spots, were two pictures. One was of Nico, Percy, Thalia, Grover, Clarisse, the Stolls, Rachel and I right after the battle with the Titans. The other was of Percy and I, laughing by the campfire and me.

I jumped about a foot out of my bed and had already grabbed my knife when I heard the knock on my door. I put down my knife, thinking it would be Jason, Leo or Piper coming to talk and shouted for him or her to come in. I hadn't even looked up until I heard the voice.

"Now now girl. Come with me."

The very voice shot shivers of dread down my spine. Wishing it to be someone else, praying to the gods, I looked up and confirmed my worst fears. Gaea was standing in my doorway.

"I will never come with you Gaea," I said, putting on my brave face, steel in my voice. My mind sprinting, I ran through my possibilities. There was no way I could contact the others without her knowing. My best hope was to try and keep her talking until someone came to check on me.

"So how did you even get on this ship?" I questioned, buying for time.

"Don't even try to distract me girl," Gaea said, as if she had read my mind, "I know what you are trying to do. I am stronger than ever and even with your weak little friends could you hope to defeat me. Besides, all the others are already under my control. Just like you will be. Come!"

With her last word, I rose up and walked toward her, my legs moving against my control. I tried to fight the pull, but it was like fighting Kronos's time control but 10x worse. My mind filled with dread as Gaea motioned me to follow and my body obeyed her order.

_Percy,_ I thought, _He thinks this ship is safe. We're leading him and the Romans into a great big trap. _

__Before I could think anymore, a tidal wave of ice flew through me and knocked me out, leaving me with one last view of a supposedly safe ship infested with monsters.

AN: Ok I know it's short. If you guys REVIEW *hint hint* I might make the next one longer.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: OK thanks to all who read and to Daughter of Magic for reviewing. Here's the next chapter. Remember, all rights go to Rick Riordan.

Percy II

As I walked toward the descending ship with Hazel and Frank, my heart did a little flip flop as I saw a familiar mane of curly blond hair standing out over the side of the rail. She was here.

"Come on you guys!" I moaned, beginning to speed up, "We better get there before Octavion starts trying to kill my friends!"

"Geez Percy," Frank muttered, "You weren't in a hurry 10 seconds ago."

I grinned widely and hurried forward even faster as my friends struggled to catch up with me. As we reached the crowd that circled the descending ship, I pushed my way through all the heavily guarded half-bloods and legacies. Hazel and Frank hesitated for a second as they realized that I was making my way to our other Praetor, Reyna.

"Percy, you go on ahead to the front. We should stay back here with everybody else," Hazel protested.

I rolled my eyes and grabbed her arm to pull her to the front. To avoid being pulled alone, the daughter of Pluto and hastily snatched Frank's arm as I knew she would.

Finally, we had all made it to the front of the crowd and I positioned myself next to Reyna and tried to look dignified while wearing a purple bed sheet.

_Oh great, _I thought, _First time I get to see my friends after 8 months and I'm wearing a bed sheet. Oh gods. If Clarisse comes, she'll never let me forget it. _

But a turn of the curly blond head brought my attention back to the problem at hand. I saw the girl's head turn so now we could see her face looking over the rail and not the back of her head. In the split second I saw her face a minute before the ship had landed, I knew something was terribly wrong. Her beautiful stormy grey eyes that should have held excitement, were blank. Unseeing. It broke my heart to see the life sucked out of her face. The edges of her mouth were curled in a meaningless smile, faking happiness.

"Don't let the ship land!" I cried, "Reyna, soldiers! Retreat! Get back! Monsters are on the ship!" Everyone stared at me for a moment before the meaning sank in. Frank got the idea first.

"Trap!" he announced, "It's a trap! People get ready for attack!" The son of Mars shape shifted into a dragon and began to fly over the Legion while trying to keep the infested ship from landing. Reyna had leaped on Skippio and flew over the people who had turned out to see the Greeks. They were in complete chaos. Octavion was in his element. Bellowing about how he was right all along and how Greeks were traitors to the gods and worked for Gaia.

"Octavion shut up!" Reyna demanded, "Get everybody out of here! Now! People of Rome! Get into the city and get ready for attack! We are under attack!"

By now the ship had landed gracefully in front of us. Most half-bloods and legacies had understood the warnings and fled to the city to get in formation. A couple were still scrambling away. Reyna had flew Skippio away to set up the troops. We had come to an understanding somehow during the chaos. I would try and stem the flow of monsters and she would stay with the troops.

"Hazel, Frank, You guys get to the city. I'll distract the monsters for as long as I can," I orderd as soon as Frank came down back as a human.

"Percy no!" Hazel protested, Frank nodding his agreement, "You could get killed!"

"It's because of me they came here. I have to fight them," I said, sounding a lot braver than I felt. My heart felt as if it was about to break in two. _ I might have to fight Annabeth. If she's under Gaia's control, she won't know who I am. Or worse, she does but can't help it. _

Reluctantly, my friends left, though they kept looking back. I watched a ramp descending from the ship and I steeled myself for what was coming. Looking back once, I saw Hazel and Frank hurrying away to the heavily armed mass that was the legion. Quickly turning around again, I found myself facing my old enemy.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: So thanks for reviewing. OK. I'm going to try to review every weekend. So don't expect me to be reviewing before. You people out there know I'm not an American man called Rick Riordan, right? So yeah, he owns everything you recognize.

**CHAPTER 3**

Percy III

I couldn't believe it. Why did he have to come back? Him? All that time I thought he was good in the end. All that time I grieved over his death. But no. He was back. A second time traitor. Helping Gaia. Luke Castellean. His eyes shielded by a pair of black sport sunglasses. His scar was still standing out across his face, an ugly dark red, as if it had been recently opened and dried up. He wore a dark brown suit that didn't match his bronze/ metal sword or his mood.

"Luke!" I cried out, trying to keep the note of despair and heartbreak from my voice, "What are you doing? Helping the enemy!"

"So you're here. I thought you must be Perseus."

The voice shocked me. It brought back vivid images of the recent war. I could just hear the demi-gods screaming, the clash of swords and the distinguishable thunk of an arrow making contact with the venerable spot of a monster. It wasn't the voice of Luke.

"Kronos," I snarled, disgust evident in the two syllables, "What are you doing back?"

"Why Perseus, I thought it was obvious," the titan of time mocked me, "I had thought you were intelligent._ Seaweed brain._"

At those last words something inside me snapped, just like Kronos knew it would. A wave roared in my ears and I launched myself clear over the titan's head, roaring in defiance and startling both Kronos and the legion. The leigoners ( AN: not sure if that's really what they're called) had finally got organized. They were ready to attack, but Reyna had ordered them not to help me. I was thankful for that. This was _my _fight.

Kronos had spun around and we were circling each other subconsciously. I had Riptide in my sweaty hands. We both knew what the outcome of this match would be. I had lost my curse of Achilles. Kronos hadn't. He was a titan. I was a demi-god. Even though I knew I was a pretty good fighter, I knew he would win. There was no way I would win in against him, one on one. I prepared myself for a hopeless battle.

"Perseus, you know that you can't win. Lay down your arms and perhaps I can convince Gaia to kill you less painfully. Perhaps only a decade or so of torture instead of eternity before she kills you," he jested.

"You still don't know how to pick the winning side, do you? Don't you know yet that history has a habit of repeating it's self? You do know what happened in the last giant war? They lost. The gods won," I retorted, struggling to keep a barely subdued rage out of my voice.

"Well _seaweed brain-" _he began, but he never got to finish his sentence. Taking advantage of his momentary distraction, I had launched myself across to him, bringing riptide up in a feint to his left shoulder. It worked. Stunned, he fumbled for his sword and for the fraction of a second; I could tell it was Luke, not Kronos who watched me behind the sunglasses. Then that second passed and Kronos was bringing the sword Luke had dubbed Backbiter, up to block my strike. But my sword wasn't there. I had swung it around under his left arm, where I knew his Achilles heel lay.

To my utter surprise, the titan allowed my blade to connect with his one weak point. The instant my blade cut through the fabric to his skin, time froze. Literally froze. It was nothing like the times I fought him before when it was like fighting with 100 pound rings holding back me back. It froze. My sword was frozen touching his Achilles heel, he was frozen trying to bring Backbiter to block me, the legion was frozen watching me in horror. Up above us, Skippio was frozen halfway through beating his wings and Reyna had her mouth open to shout an order. I couldn't move a muscle but I still was aware of my surroundings. I knew I was frozen, unlike the rest of the world. I couldn't explain how I knew, I just did.

After what felt like days, I felt my conscience float away. Like someone was summoning me. Bit by bit, my conscience was being pulled to somewhere else. Slowly at first, then more rapidly as I realized what was going on, it drifted away from my frozen body. Wary of unknown things stealing my conscience while the rest of the world was frozen, I tried to fight it.

_Perseus, _A familiar voice boomed in my head,_ We are not your enemy. Come, we have vital information we must share with you. _

Relaxing at the voice of my father, Poseidon, I allowed myself to drift away to wherever he was.

AN: Now please go click review. Hate it? Love it? Review please!


	4. Chapter 4

**AN: You people don't seem to want to review. Please REVIEW! OK you guys know that I don't own Percy Jackson or the Heroes of Olympus right? OK good. Here's chapter 4.**

**Hazel IV**

I was helping Reyna and Frank get the legion together when I saw it happen. Percy had just forced us to leave him and was down by the senate house fighting some boy around 19 who looked like Octavian. They didn't seem to be fighting much. Just talking. For now.

I was watching Octavian especially carefully. He looked excited. A feeling I could tell that was not shared with most legionaries. His evilly excited expression stood out of the sea of worried and distraught faces. I watched, unnoticed, as he fingered his knife, the one he uses to cut open poor stuffed animals. It seemed he was in some conflict. _He's up to something. We have to do something about him. _

"Hazel!" a voice cried from above me, "Get the 5th cohort in line!"

"Reyna!" I cried back, desperate to get others aware of Octavian's plot… whatever it was, "Octavian's-"

I never got the chance. Octavian seemed to have come to a descision. He walked casually over to Cohort 1, acting as if he was innocent. Pah! As if! I sprinted over to Octavian as I realized what he was doing. He noticed me and began to speed up. He reached Frank who was facing the other way at the time. Suddenly, I realized his plan.

"No! Frank! Look behind you!" I shrieked. That moment Frank spun around and saw Octavian standing over him with a knife. Time seemed to slow down. The whole legion had it's attention stuck on the pair, attacker and victim. Reyna was hurtling down toward them as fast as she could, hoping to get there before Octavian could do too much damage. I would like to say I was bravely rushing forward to stand in front of Octavian's expected knife. Sadly it wasn't the truth. I was frozen in horror a couple meters away. We all knew Octavian was power hungry. I just didn't expect him to be a murderer.

"You there," a familiar voice thundered, in the tone I usually associated with freaking out at someone because they were late, "What in Zeus are you doing?"

The rest of the legion froze, slowly turning toward the new figure descending gracefully from the storm clouds that had gathered without our notice. The voice was familiar, but the person was not. It was a girl of around 15, with startling electric eyes. She wore silver circlet on top of her short black hair. The girl, who was obviously a daughter of Jupiter, dressed like a hunter with light silvery clothes. She held a silver bow already strung as if she expected an attack. Although her landing was graceful, she looked as if she would be sick.

"You kid!" she cried, "What the Hades are you doing? Trying to kill your friends? Get your knife away!"

We all stared at her, dumbstruck. She looked incredibly similar to… Jason.

Octavian was the first to unfreeze. He, thankfully, took his knife away from Frank and looked defiantly back at the girl.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" he cried, acting scandalized. It was a bit late though.

"Who am I? Who are you, traitor?" she retorted, every bit as angry as Octavian.

"I am Octavian, centurion of the first cohort, augury of the 12 legion, legacy of Apollo. Now girl, tell us who you are? "

"Girl?" her eyes flashed dangerously. I could see the doubt forming in Octavian's eyes. I knew that I would not want to be him.

"Girl? I'm the lieutenant of the hunters and the daughter of Zeus. I fought at the second Titan war and partly because I brought the hunters to the demi-gods aid did we save Olympus. How dare you call me a girl!"

We all froze. I knew for a fact that in the recent titan war, this girl had not fought with us. We didn't even defend Olympus! Partly because we had no idea where it was. And why did she keep calling the gods by their Greek names? That must mean she knew…

"Percy! Where the Hades is he?" she exploded at last, "I suffer the pain of flying all the way here to see the idiot and what do I get? A rebellion going on right as I land and the Seaweed brain is no where to be seen!"

Octavian looked as if he had just swallowed a mouse. Reyna was in shock and obviously wasn't going to say anything. Frank was still glowering at Octavian for his near assassination. Oh Pluto. I stepped forward and the girl's eyes fell on me.

"Look, I don't know how you know Percy or how you expect us to believe you fought in the Titan war, believe me, I was there. Just put the bow down and we can talk…" I said, trying to avoid her screaming at us anymore.

She just stared at me, apparently amazed anyone could be so stupid. Then, right when I expected her to go crazy on us and start shooting those silver arrows, she said the most unexpected thing ever.

"Where is Percy? Tell me he isn't a guinea pig again."

My eyes bulged. I swear that I heard Frank's chin touch the ground. Dakota started chocking on his cool aid. Reyna cracked a little smile and I swear I saw the two girls exchange knowledgeable glances. Octavian looked even more warily at her. As if she was an interesting move on a chessboard.

"He's fighting that blond dude with the scar on his face down there."

"Erre es korakas Kronos!" She cried, suddenly distraught. Her face was contorted with rage and grief.

"Do you people know who is down there? It's Kronos, king of the titans. We got to go help him. Perce will be able to hold his own for a while but not for long."

"Woah woah woah girly," Octavian said, suddenly able to speak again. "Who do you think you are, telling us orders? And how would you know that's Saturn?"

"Oh Zeus! I thought we straightened this out!" the girl was screaming at us now, incredibly frustrated at our lack of action,"I'm Thalia Grace! FYI, I fought Kronos! So did Perce! But if we don't get down to help him he won't survive this time!"

Gape cue.

The whole legion was staring at her. Jason Grace. Thalia Grace. That meant…

"You're Jason's sister?" I whispered, caught off guard.

"And that is significant because?"

Just as I was getting even more confused, awed and infuriated by this girl, Thalia, the whole world stopped. Just stopped. It froze. Time froze, people froze, thoughts. Everything.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: Thanks for any who read and reviewed. I can't post until August because I'm not going to get any internet so this chapter will be long. Rick Riordan owns everything. **

**Hazel V**

I was frozen. Not like I had been a few minutes ago, frozen with shock and awe, but literally frozen. I couldn't move, even if I struggled with all my might. Suddenly, I wasn't even there. Camp Jupiter had dissolved around me and a new scene took its place. I had popped up in lobby of the Empire State building in New York. I tentatively moved my arms and discovered I could move them. Time must have returned to it's normal pace again. Mortals bustled around me, not even noticing I just materialized out of nowhere. I looked around and spotted two familiar faces looking as confused as I was.

Frank was standing a foot away and had on an expression appropriate to if someone had clubbed him with a bat. And, by the entrance to the building was Jason. Standing with a pretty girl with kaleidoscope eyes and sloppy brown braids. She seemed like a Venus girl who was trying to look normal. Odd. Also, an elfish, mischievous looking Latino boy was on his right side. He had a tool belt on and kept fidgeting with something in it. He couldn't keep his hands still. Definitely a Vulcan boy. He had his head down at the moment, but when he brought it up, our eyes met. He looked exactly like Sammy. I swear as I met his eyes he recognized me too. Suddenly I felt like I was fading away. _No! No! Ella said that there would be no more flashbacks!_ I hurried over to Frank and grabbed his shoulder, trying to ground myself to this age. Thank the gods, It worked.

"Frank," I said quietly, "Look over by the door."

He did and saw the trio of half-bloods, gasping in shock at the sight of Jason. I grabbed his hand and dragged him over.

"Jason!" I called out excited, "Jason!"

He spotted me and a grin began to appear on his face.

"Hazel?" he cried, astonished, "How did you get here from Camp Jupiter? What's going on at camp? Has Octavian stolen the preatorship? How's Reyna? Gwen?"

"We're all good. This is Frank Zhang, son of Mars, legacy of Neptune. He helped me and Percy Jackson, a Greek, kill Alcyoneus. Do you have any idea why we're at the empire state building?" I replied.

"Nada. This is Leo Valdez and Piper McLean," Jason said, gesturing to the boy who looked like Sammy and the Venus girl, "We were just being imprisoned in the bottom of the Argo II, the ship we flew here in, then suddenly poof. We were frozen and got teleported here. So why do you think we're here?"

"To talk to the gods of course," said a girl's voice from behind us. We spun around and saw two people, one familiar, one new, walk toward us. Percy and a blond girl were walking toward us. Percy looked just jubilant. He radiated happiness even though he was rubbing his side as if he was just punched. The girl too looked delighted, but something seemed to be bugging her. Something trying to break the aura of happiness surrounding her. She had golden princess curls that were tied up in a ponytail. She had an orange t-shirt and jeans, but her eyes made me realize that she wasn't just any girl. They were a stormy grey and calculating even through her delight.

"Annabeth," Jason said, "I assume this is your boy-friend, the great Percy Jackson."

So this was Percy's girlfriend.

"Yep," Percy responded, popping the p, "That would be me. I assume that you would be the great Jason Grace," he said, then suddenly froze, realizing what he had said, "Grace, oh my gods. That would make you Thalia's brother!"

"We just met her. A delicate flower," Frank grumbled, rolling his eyes, "Saved me from Octavian then starts yelling at us."

"Sounds like Thalia," Annabeth commented, "Anyways, let's go." She and Percy turned around and started towards the front desk. I looked at Frank and he shrugged at me. We followed them with Jason's trio just behind us. Percy went straight up to the guard at the desk. The guard didn't pay any attention to Percy at first, probably because he was reading some big book with a dragon on it, but when Percy cleared his throat, the guard looked up instantly. A big smile popped up onto his face at the sight of him.

"Percy! You're back! So where'd you find him Annabeth?" he asked turning to her, half joking half serious, "Percy, do you know how many times she came here trying to get up to Olympus to talk to Lady Hera? And not to say 'thank you.'"

"Hey Phil," Percy said casually, "This is Hazel Levesque, daughter of Pluto and Frank Zhang, son of Mars."

Annabeth chuckled at the son of mars part, then introduced Jason, Leo and Piper.

"So you guys wanna go up?" Phil said, reaching under the desk and pulling out a key card, "Percy, Annabeth, you know what to do."

"See ya!" Percy called.

"Bye!"

Annabeth grabbed the card and we went over to an empty elevator. She stuck the card into a security slot once the doors had closed. A red button reading 600 appeared. Annabeth jabbed it and we made our way up.

As soon as the elevator music started playing, Neil Diamond, Annabeth and Percy exchanged a nostalgic smile. They seemed to be communicating without words. Small tears began to form at the edges of Annabeth's eyes and Percy wrapped his arms around her as she leaned against him.

"Ok people," Leo said, "What is it with the music?"

"It's the same music that played when we came down from Olympus after the war," Annabeth answered sadly.

"I knew I should have made it part of my wish," Percy said, making Annabeth smile through her tears.

"What wish?" Piper piped up. Never thought Venus girls were curious.

"After we saved Olympus, Zeus gave us all a gift. Annabeth, Thalia, Grover, Tyson and I. Zeus gave me a wish. Any wish that I wanted. They offered to make me a god, but I refused. Instead, I asked them to claim all their kids by the time they turned 13. Including the minor gods. At camp we had to build a whole bunch of new cabins for the minor gods and Hades," Percy explained. We all were staring at him. I thought I knew Percy, but I guess I didn't know him that well. He turned down being a GOD! I mean, how many people get that offer in their life and turn it down?

"So let me get this straight," Frank said, "The gods were offering you immortality, correct so far?"

"Yep."

"And you decided to refuse this once-in-a-lifetime-offer?"

"Yep."

"Why?" Frank asked, bemused, "I know we're supposed to be self-less and want to sacrifice stuff for the better of the community, but I think that I can say that just about no one at Camp Jupiter would make that same decision."

"I had other motives than just to get the gods to recognize their children," Percy explained, glancing at the daughter of Athena leaning on him, "By the way, we're here."

I heard a small ding. The elevator doors opened onto Olympus and what I saw took my breath away. I heard a little gasp beside me from Annabeth and I realized with a start that she knew him too. He must have gone to the Greek camp. One of those Greek iris message things was blocking our view of Olympus. One of a battered, imprisoned, barely conscious son of Hades. One of Nico.

"Hazel," Nico gasped, "Percy. You gotta help me. I'm in a cave by the Doors of Death. I went looking for the doors and I found them, but Gration caught me."

At the name 'Gration' I heard a sharp intake of breath from Annabeth.

"And Perce- the monster that's guarding me, Gration isn't usually here, It's Greyon. He's back."

"Why do the monster I kill always come back so soon?" Percy groaned, "Where exactly are you Nico?"

"I'm somewhere in Greece, but it's not exactly a physical place. You can only reach it through questing."

Great. Almost exactly what Thanatos told us. Suddenly a look of fear flashed across Nico's face.

"Greyon's coming. I gotta go!"

"Nico!" I cried, desperate. He hadn't told us enough! How were we supposed to find him? Who was this 'Greyon' anyways? But it was too late. Nico slashed a hand across the iris message and he disappeared. Leaving us with not enough information and a nearly impossible quest.

**AN: Now please do the simple kindness of clicking that button down there that says 'review' and write a few words. Hate it? Love it? Whatever! Please review!**


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: I know this is kind of late, but school started and I had homework and other stuff. Ok I'll stop making up excuses now. I never owned- Sob- PJO or HoO. It's all- sob- Rick Riordans.**

Nico VI

I sat on the floor, staring at the ground. The heat seared my legs but I dared not get up for I would surely have to look at the figure in front of me if I did. Especially after what happened last time. The traitorous memory burned in the back of my mind.

_(Flashback)_

_It was the 22nd day of captivity. I had marked each day as a scratch on the cave wall. In my cell, I couldn't use any of my powers. Gaea had somehow blocked them. Mostly Greyon left me alone to suffer. He gave me sufficient food so I wouldn't die, but not enough not to be hungry. The cell was underground, carved out of some place underneath a volcano. The walls were like a furnace, leaving me horrible burns. I was staring at the back wall of my cell when I heard the voice._

"_Nico? Nico!" a anxious voice cried from right outside the door. Hazel!_

_Spinning around, I saw not the familiar face of my half sister in the small barred window in the door, but the snarling, twisted face of a cyclops. Another, smaller cloaked figure stood beside the cyclops. The door swung open and I stared into the eyes of Gaea. Instantly, I couldn't move. I sat down abruptly, but not of my own command. I couldn't do anything but watch in horror as Gaea controlled my body._

"_Thank you, you may leave," Gaea dismissed the cyclops. As it lumbered back to where ever she sent it, she turned her focus to me._

"_Well well well Nico. We have ourselves in quite a fix, don't we?" she said in a honey sweet voice, a small smile curling her earthy lips. I was dieing to do something, break free of her control and smack that stupid smile of her face. Run off and kill that stupid cyclops for helping her._

_But of course, my head nodded mechanically._

"_I have a way for you to help me and yourself, wouldn't you like that Nico?" she continued in that sickening voice._

_My head continued to nod like a complacent schoolboy promised a treat and my face split into an excited grin._

"_Here's what you have to do."_

_I watched her force me to talk to Percy, Hazel, Annabeth, Frank and some other people. I fought against her, but she wouldn't let me go. I fought to get my free will back but couldn't._

_Finally, once all the work was finished, she released me. I collapsed against the stone wall, but instantly sprang up again, the heat searing me._

"_Let that remind you of the power of Gaea, son of Hades." With that, she laughed as she walked out the door._

_(End of flashback)_

"Nico! Look me in the eye!" thundered the voice of my father, Hades. Shock nearly forced my head up, but I didn't move.

"Nico, look at me when I am speaking to you! We do not have a lot of time! I can only maintain this for a few minutes! I have crucial information for you!"

I kept staring at the floor. _That isn't dad. That isn't dad, _I chanted silently. _That isn't dad. That isn't dad._

"Nico please. For your m-mother. " The broken voice was worse than any screaming or shouting. I felt a single tear roll down my sweaty face. I had to look up.

"Dad!" I gasped. For a moment, I completely froze, shock tearing through my mind. A blurry hologram of Hades shimmered in front of me.

"Well what do you expect?" he grumbled gruffly, "Ok Nico. The seven are at Olympus now. They got your IM and are trying to get a quest to save you. Try to sit tight until they find you. We have vaguely located you're cell. It's somewhere under Mt Milos in Greece. Don't do anything stupid."

"Dad no! It's-" I began.

But it was too late. Hades's blurry hologram from flickered and went out. I was left alone in my cell with a silver, circular device that was slowly turning to sludge from the heat.

"A trap," I finished. Nothing ever went right for me did it?

I went over and bent down next to the silver device. It was semisolid, like clay. I molded it in my hands to a sharp point, then hid it in my pocket. The next time someone came into this room, they would have a not so pleasant surprise.

24 hours late I got my wish. Greyon strolled to the door with a tray of some gray sludge like substance in a bowl. As he unlocked the door, I hurled the arrowhead at him, cutting clearly through his hearts. He managed a look of incredulous surprise before exploding into a yellow powder. I pocketed the arrowhead and grabbed the tray and bowl. I slipped silently out of the cell into a long corridor. _I could shadow travel away right now_, I realized, _It would be all over. But of course, I have to figure out what's going on here. _I groaned slightly. I ran down the hallways, taking extra care to be silent, hiding in the shadow whenever someone was coming.

Finally, I found myself in a large factory type of area. Cyclops rushed around, oblivious to the heat, making all sorts of weapons and devices. In a huge silver chair by the far side was a giant. Gration turned at that moment and he looked me in the eye. A eerie grin lit up his face.

"Mother Gaea told me not to kill her little toy, but now the pet is out of it's cage, I suppose I must," Gration cackled. The giant bounded toward me with surprising speed considering his size. Out of nowhere, he grabbed a giant silver spear. He raised it to my chest when I realized what was going on. Hastily committing the place to memory, I shadow traveled away, to some unknown location, leaving a giant screaming with rage as it's prey disappeared.

**AN: I am Gaea. Look into my eyes and I now control your body. Scroll down to that little box at the bottom of my story. Write a couple words. Click 'Post Review.' Repeat. **


End file.
